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A Word To Newcomers

Newcomers

Sparrow Chat was born in late 2003 on a "Blogger" site, but following problems with the server, was moved to a "Wordpress" format. Unfortunately, at the time no-one on Wordpress had discovered a simple method of transferring posts from the beta version of Blogger, so the only archives available are from November 2006, when the blog migrated here.

RegCure

Think For Yourselves!

Howard Zinn

A MESSAGE FOR AMERICA FROM HOWARD ZINN

From 'Bill Moyers Journal' - filmed just weeks before Zinn's death in 2009.

Yarns.....Gongoozler

Yarns.....Gongoozler

"Yarns of a Professional Gongoozler"

Click on the book to learn more about"Yarns of a Professional Gongoozler".

by

R J Adams.

NOW AVAILABLE - IN PAPERBACK!

Subtitled "Tales of English Canal Life at Dixie's Marina", this book highlights both the touching and absurd aspects of living and working around the boating fraternity on England's inland waterways. Available from the publisher and leading bookstores, the work can also be purchased in eBook (Amazon Kindle) or AudioBook (.mp3) format for immediate download.

For more information, and to purchase your copy - click on the bookcover - NOW!

A True Republican

True Republican

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.
It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.

We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat.

We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.

This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."

Ben Turnbull

Ben Turnbull

SUPERPOWER

The works of Ben Turnbull take a satirical look at the lengths America's political elites go to in order to control and manipulate the way we think, from our first days of play to the last time we cast our vote. Turnbull is a passionate critic of the contemporary American political system, and explains why toys are central to his work: "Force fed on violence, abused by a controlling superpower and blackmailed through patriotism, the public are ultimately as disposable as the toys they once played with".

Al Devito's take on a variety of topics that are shaping today's U.S.Coming to you direct from Martha's Vineyard, this has to be one ofthe best current affairs blogs on the internet.

All Coal Is Dirty Coal

Clean Coal

DON'T BE FOOLED!

There is no such thing as "Clean Coal"

"Clean coal: Never was there an oxymoron more insidious, or more dangerous to our public health. Invoked as often by the Democratic presidential candidates as by the Republicans and by liberals and conservatives alike, this slogan has blindsided any meaningful progress toward a sustainable energy policy."[1]

Clean Coal Technology means taking the carbon dioxide from coalburning power stations and storing it underground. To date, that technology does not exist. It cannot be done. Even if sometime in the future it became possible, CO2 stored under the soil will eventually find a way to the surface and prove a legacy for our descendents we should not wish on them.

"Toxins from coal-fired power plants are spewed into our air and leach into our water, causing asthma, cancer and over 24,000 premature deaths each year. And just recently, in Tennessee, we all saw the catastrophic effects from the failure of one coal-ash impoundment on surrounding watersheds and communities."[2]

The Night Before Christmas

by R J Adams December 23, 2012 at 10:34pm

Despite the vivid imaginings of thousands, the Mayan calendar failed to predict the end of the world on December 21st. Hopefully, I can now safely wish all friends and readers of Sparrow Chat a very merry Christmas.

Whether Muslim or Jew, Christian or Atheist, Hindu or Buddhist, or none of those things, may you revel in the sentiments of the season, even as we languish in the vain hope that all may be more tolerant of each other in 2013, than they were in 2012.

And, let’s not forget, though the world failed to extinguish itself on the 21st, it could still happen sometime in the (not too distant?) future…

T’was the night before Christmas, and all round the earth
Terrorists plotted for all they were worth.
Obama sat musing which drone strike to pick,
A wedding? A market? Whose ass should he kick?

Muslims seethed hatred for all that was Christian,
Jews in Israel eyed Hamas with suspicion.
Syrian rebels joined force ‘gainst Assad,
They’ll soon fight each other – the whole world’s gone mad.

The Arctic was melting, the earth growing warm,
Droughts, floods, tornadoes, becoming the norm.
Nobody took notice, “It’s not us!” they cried
As New York washed away on a rather high tide.

High in the Heavens Mohammed and Jesus
Mithras, Athena, and Zeus with his aegis,
Looked down on the world they had brought into being
And couldn’t believe what the hell they were seeing.

They spoke not a word, but went straight to their work,
Called all the angels, then turned with a jerk,
And blasting the earth with a fire from their noses
Consumed it all up, despite firemen’s hoses.

Then summoning chariots of fire with a whistle
They flew off to heaven like the down of a thistle.
Only one of them spoke – the one they called Mithras,
Muttered, “Bloody little shits! They just don’t deserve Christmas.”

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Welcome

Welcome

"Sparrow Chat" is the website/blog of R.J.Adams, a British writer living in America. The name derives from my first book "Even Little Sparrows", an autobio of my years with the British RSPCA. Some may disagree with my views on certain subjects. Comments are welcome, provided they are of an intellectual and constructive nature. No obscenities, please - unless necessary to the description of certain politicians and others of that ilk.

Inspired by the horrorof two Americans andone British man kidnappedin Iraq 2004, the storyis fictitious, but seeksto highlight the sufferingof those innocents capturedby al Qaeda during thisdreadful period of Iraqi history.

Please Note: Google Advertising is no longer shown on Sparrow Chat, in protest at that company's new (Lack of) Privacy Policy.

All post images should be enlargeable with a mouse click or finger tap (Android, etc).

Hot Facts

Hot Facts

"The Tea Party Comes To Britain?"

"Get ready for a radical rightwing insurgency that could be stirring within the [UK] Conservative Party."

So writes George Monbiot of the UK's Guardian newspaper.

"Beware the self-pity of the governing classes. Ministers of the Crown might look powerful and oppressive to us; often they see themselves as lonely heroes confronting a sea of troubles. That has been Tony Blair’s schtick from the month he took office. We now see him dripping with other people’s blood; he appears to perceive only the scars on his own back...."

"The whinging begins as soon as they are free to speak. Michael Gove [ex-Minister for Education], demoted but still in government, has said little, but his emissaries are wailing loudly on his behalf. Owen Paterson, [see image] the former environment secretary [recently fired in a cabinet reshuffle], can speak directly, and he now lambasts the “green blob” [environmentalists] against which he nobly fought and lost..."

"Tea Party politics can be defined as the interests of the ultra-elite cleverly repackaged as the interests of the common people. Here are its essential elements.

The first is a sense of victimhood. Never mind that those who make such claims are the least likely victims. They must find common cause with people who feel passed over or pushed out or ignored: the motivating themes of the radical right. In Paterson’s case he made it up, stating “I was burnt in effigy by Greenpeace as I was recovering from an operation to save my eyesight.” Greenpeace did no such thing..."

"This comes from a man who insisted on a mass cull of badgers against scientific advice, who stripped away the last regulations protecting the soil from erosion; who believed that “the purpose of waterways is to get rid of water” and sought to turn our rivers into featureless gutters; who championed the pesticides that appear to be destroying bees and many other animals..."

"...Tea Party politics were bound to reach these shores eventually, and they will be lavishly financed by the very rich. It won’t be pretty, but we should be ready for it."

What is this dirty brown image about? You'll need to enlarge it to find out.

Above is an image taken from the spacecraft 'Voyager I' when it was a mere 6 billion miles from Planet Earth. Image enlargement reveals our planet faintly visible as a pale blue dot, illuminated by a sunbeam. 'Voyager I' reported that it had yet to encounter God, and asked what the hell we were all fighting about?

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam." ~ Carl Sagan 1994.

"In my opinion, the greatest scandal of philosophy is that, while all around us the world of nature perishes – and not just the world of nature alone – philosophers continue to talk, sometimes cleverly and sometimes not, about the question of whether the world exists." ~ Karl Popper, Two Faces of Common Sense

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"I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the Bank. You are a den of vipers and thieves." ~ Andrew Jackson (1834)

Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor

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Religious freedom is an absolute right as is freedom from religion.

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The world consumes around 86 million barrels of oil every day. When the price of a barrel rises by $3, it generates an additional $94 billion dollars per year for.......someone?

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Roughly a fifth of the earth's oxygen is produced in the Amazon rainforest, or "one breath in five".

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In 1842, following a visit to America, Charles Dickens wrote of the capital, Washington:

"Despicable trickery at elections; under-handed tamperings with public officers; and cowardly attacks upon opponents, with scurrilous newspapers for shields, and hired pens for daggers".

Nothing changes, it seems.

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"The No-Fly List: 21,000 people so dangerous they're not allowed to fly, yet so innocent they can't be arrested." ~ Bruce Schneier.

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"God is an essence we know nothing of. Until this awful blasphemy is got rid of there will never be any liberal science in the world" ~ John Adams, US President 1797 - 1801.

"The clergy believe that any power confided in me will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. They believe rightly." ~ Thomas Jefferson, US President 1801 - 1809

"I have seldom met an intelligent person whose views were not narrowed and distorted by religion." ~ James Buchanan, US President 1857 - 1861

"My earlier views on the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation have become clearer and stronger with advancing years." ~ Abraham Lincoln, US President 1861 - 1865

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Even Little Sparrows

Even Little Sparrows

"Even Little Sparrows"

Click on the book to learn moreabout "Even Little Sparrows".

by

R J Adams.

Recalling life as an animal welfare inspector in 1970's England, Even Little Sparrows is now available for immediate download as a revised and updated eBook, while still obtainable from the publisher and leading bookstores in its original paperback format. Over 300 pages of heart-rending, yet often hilarious anecdotes weave a poignant love story around the lives of characters dedicated to caring for the sick and unwanted of the animal kingdom.

For more information, and to purchase your copy - click on the bookcover - NOW!

SPECIAL OFFER! - and only for Sparrow Chat readers!

Obtain your copy of the eBook (1.2Mb) absolutely FREE just by clicking on the link.

(NO credit card charge will be levied)

Twilight Award

Mars Award for fighting spirit and unflinching opposition to the wrongs of this world - awarded to "Sparrow Chat"